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| Ryan Northcote Photo |
The 61st
season of racing at Knoxville Raceway got under way on Saturday night. Perfect weather and free kid’s night brought
in a great crowd for the season opener. (My
estimate is 3,500 in attendance) After 4
of the last 6 season openers were rained out, including the last 2, the odds
were in favor of a great day. There are
some great ticket discount promotions available this year as well so I’m sure
that helped, but the weather always plays the biggest factor with attendance.
410 Report
Top 10 Qualifying: Terry McCarl set
quick time with a lap of 15.085 (119.3 mph), followed by Justin Henderson, Mark
Dobmeier, Brian Brown, Davey Heskin, Dusty Zomer, Ian Madsen, Brooke Tatnell,
Bronson Maeschen, and Craig Dollansky.
Dobmeier and Zomer qualified well. They
both have had struggles in qualifying the past couple of years. Zomer’s average
last year was 10.2 while Dobs was 15.7.
If they can continue to qualify well, that bodes well for their
championship hopes. Good to see those
signs of improvement.
In the heat races, it was Craig Dollansky, Henderson, and Maeschen picking up
the wins. Henderson looked strong driving up from sixth to first in his win. The
track was wide and racy as no heat race was won from the front row. We saw a lot of great racing in the heats. The
fastest 8 cars all made their transfer positions giving the 8th and 7th fastest
cars in qualifying the front row starting positions of the A-Main, which would
be Madsen and Tatnell.
After nearly
winning the track championship last year despite not getting a win at Knoxville,
Australia’s Ian Madsen won the first feature of the season. It was his third career win at the famed
half-mile, but his first with the Nehring #18 car. The win had to be a big relief for Ian to
finally get the win for his car owner and sponsors. Ian led wire to wire but he earned it,
holding off challenges from Brooke Tatnell and weaving his way through lapped
traffic.
Dusty Zomer was settled in third most of the race, but the most excitement was
watching the battle behind him as Terry McCarl, Brian Brown, Mark Dobmeier, Craig
Dollansky, Justin Henderson, and Davey Heskin put on a great show racing hard
for position. To think we might have
these guys going at it every week… oh man I can’t wait to see how this season
turns out.
Dollansky made contact with the turn two fence and stopped to bring out the
only caution, and he was done for the night.
Dobmeier’s engine let go towards the end, sending him pit side. In the end Henderson came from the fourth row
and passed Zomer late to claim third while McCarl was fifth, followed by Brown,
Maeschen, Clint Garner, Josh Schneiderman, and Dustin Selvage completed the top
ten.
Garner was
impressive in his return to the 410 ranks, climbing from 17th to 8th. Davey Heskin faded from fourth to eleventh.
Don Droud Jr. lost an engine early before he could complete a lap.
Henderson
sits on top of the point standings after week one, followed closely by Madsen,
McCarl, Tatnell, and Zomer. Who would
have thought Craig Dollansky would be 20th in points after week one? His son Garrett is three points ahead of
him.
A main Finish
(started): 1. Ian Madsen (2); 2. Brooke Tatnell (1); 3. Justin Henderson (7);
4. Dusty Zomer (3); 5. Terry McCarl (8); 6. Brian Brown (5); 7. Bronson
Maeschen (9); 8. Clint Garner (17); 9. Josh Schneiderman (11); 10. Dustin
Selvage (13); 11. Davey Heskin (4); 12. Lynton Jeffrey (12); 13. Cole Wood
(18); 14. RJ Johnson (15); 15. Skylar Prochaska (22); 16. Rob Kubli (23); 17.
Austin Johnson (16); 18. Garrett Dollansky (21); 19. Chris Martin (24); 20.
Mark Dobmeier (6); 21. Craig Dollansky (10); 22. Larry Ball Jr. (19); 23. Ryan
Bunton (20); 24. Don Droud Jr. (14).
360 Report
Justin Henderson set quick time at 15.731 (114.4 mph) beating second quick by 2
tenths of a second. He clearly has the fastest car in this class, but he is
only racing for owners points. Heat winners were Calvin Landis, David Hall, and
Lee Grosz.
Joe Beaver took off from the front row and led the distance. Jon Agan passed him on lap seven, but the
yellow came out before they completed the lap and Beaver was given the lead on
the restart. On the restart Henderson
drove around Agan and was in pursuit of the lead, but Beaver made his way
through lapped traffic and got the win.
305 Report
Chris Walraven was quick time 17.211 (104.5 mph). Heat winners were Jeff Wilke, J Kinder, and
McKenna Haase.
Local legend Steve
Breazeale kicked off his farewell season in style with a feature win, holding
off Matthew Stelzer at the end. The
feature was marred by 3 yellows and 1 red flag, taking 20 minutes to run the 12
lap event.
Notes
Saturday night at
Knoxville Raceway there were three female competitors, which is a first for the
track. Serena Paul, McKenna Haase, and Andee Beirlee all in the 305 class. I will have to arrange for a photo opp this
coming week of all three together.
Not a whole bunch of stats to go over yet this
early in the season, but be on the lookout for those in the coming weeks.
